Ex-Issa spokesman joins Daily Caller

Kurt Bardella, the former spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) who was fired after POLITICO reported that he had been forwarding reporters’ correspondence to New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich, has joined the Daily Caller as its new communications director.

“Kurt’s talent, energy and experience will be an instrumental part of the Daily Caller’s evolution from start-up to news staple,” Daily Caller editor and founder Tucker Carlson said in a statement. “As we turn our focus towards covering the 2012 election cycle, Kurt is the first of many new hires we expect to announce in the near future.”

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Bardella has spent the last five years working in communications on Capitol Hill. Before joining Issa’s office two years ago as deputy communications director and spokesman, Bardella served as press secretary for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and communications director for Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.).

He became know as one of the most ambitious and hard-charging communications operatives on the Hill, landing a long, if not entirely flattering, profile of Issa in the New Yorker in January in which Bardella frankly discussed his relationship with Washington reporters.

That relationship was tested at the end of February, when POLITICO reported that Issa had launched an inquiry into Bardella’s sharing of reporters’ emails.

He left Issa’s office at the start of March, just as the Daily Caller’s former spokeswoman, Becca Glover Watkins, was settling into his old job of deputy communications director for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Issa chairs.

But Bardella said Watkins’ move was in the works long before the story that led to his firing broke, calling it “one of those weird coincidences in life.”

The Daily Caller, which launched in January 2010 and has built up traffic to 2 million unique visitors last month, has been on Bardella’s radar for some time.

“In a short amount of time, the Daily Caller has already surpassed the online presence of conservative staples such as the Weekly Standard and National Review,” Bardella said in a statement. “With the 2012 election cycle already taking shape, there are tremendous opportunities for the Daily Caller to continue to expand their brand and I look forward to working with them to do that.”